Mr. R's Magical Kitchen

Apparently Jamie Oliver's new show, Jamie at Home, has been sparking appetites throughout the land. Last week, I saw on Well Fed that someone had written up the recipe that is strangely missing from the Food Network site. My friend L independently saw this recipe and is drawn to it. And also independently, my husband watched the show where Jamie makes this recipe and decided that on his day off of work yesterday, he would prepare this for us.

I must say, this is simply delicious. Had I known my husband was so capable, I'd have left the cooking to him long ago.

Ok, so first you make a stew of delicious beef and Guinness and vegetables and what not. It looks rather unappetizingly brown, but it was delicious. I know Mr. R put some dried thyme in there and garlic. He said there was a fair amount of celery, which he normally hates, so I tip my hat to him for not getting upset. Oh, and he used chopped portabello mushrooms.

Meanwhile, you roll out some puff pastry, enough to fit the bottom of your baking vessel, in our case, a large Fiestaware serving dish. We didn't roll out quite enough, but oh well. We decided to blind bake the bottom a bit, to ensure it was cooked through. Once that was done, we put some cheese at the bottom, topped it with half of the filling, more cheese (to be honest, I'm not sure what point the cheese served, but I'm not going to mess with this recipe), then....

Oh wait, I forgot the peas. While the dish is baking, cook and butter some peas. The end. Haha, I'm kidding, it isn't the end.
Ok, back to the pie. We rolled out another bit of puff pastry, scored it, threw it on top of the pie, and egg washed it. Sling it back in the oven to bake until golden brown.

Gently serve and drizzle (?) peas over top. MMM....I can feel the stouty goodness oozing about....It was SO very good...

Maggiano's

Another Maggianos, another fab meal. Mr. R and I heart the Maggianos. I feel like I had to have blogged about this restaurant before in detail, but I cannot find a post really outlining our deep love, so whatever, here I go again.

It isn't anything that can't be done at home. It isn't anything that is terrifically expensive. But it is just good. The first time we went was with my parents to the Durham Maggianos. We have since hit up the Boston, Cincinnati, and Cleveland together. I have also been to the DC location. Mr. R hit up Indy on his own during a work outing. I may be missing one. Needless to say, we like this place a lot.

Anyways - on this last outing - we were in Tampa with Mr. R's parents and sister and enjoyed yet another lovely meal. We tried some new foods as part of the ALWAYS spectacular family style meal. For appetizers, we had stuffed mushrooms and mozzarella marinara. Salads were caesar and spinach. Our pastas were gnocci with a tomato vodka cream sauce (the gnocci were a TAD on the mushy side, but still tasty) and Maggiano's Rigatoni D, which was rigatoni with mushrooms and caramelized onions in a marsala cream sauce, which was DELICIOUS and actually kind of light, despite the cream. Our main dishes were chicken saltimbocca (chicken, prosciutto, sage, lightly breaded, pan fried) and veal parm. Dessert was heavenly tiramisu and a chocolate zuccotto cake to die for. mmmm....I'm still digesting....

Mmm....parm

I have again returned to the chicken parm. I was going to torture R with another meal of soup or pizza, but he seemed saddened by both, so I thought, "he's a nice guy, why not make him a new meal for tonight's dinner?"

I shall also try out a new layout for incorporating pictures into my blogs, emulating such fab blogs as here and here. Centering and typing beneath and what have you. We'll see what happens.

First off, we have our cast of ingredients. Flour, the valiant protector of our delicate chicken. Egg, to bathe the chicken. And seasoned breadcrumbs mixed with Italian seasoning and parmesan cheese to deliciously flavor the chicken. Oh, and obviously, chicken, which is pounded flat and waiting in the wings (ha! wings! like, chicken wings!)

Dredge your chicken in flour. Do not be shy. We want our chicken coated and protected from the harsh harsh oil.
Next, take a spin through the egg (not pictured, but peeking from the corner) then into the delicious miasma of breadcrumby goodness. I often try to let it sit here for a minute, just to REALLY soak up the breadcrumbs.

Next, fry up those lovely breaded ladies in a mixture of olive oil and butter. I took some of my pieces a bit too far, so the resulting parm was a bit...blackened? in nature.
Our final product, served up with the homemade marinara that's been hanging out in my fridge this week, penne, and some cheese on top. That is a huge piece of chicken, but only about a 1/2 inch thick. As you can see, this is one of the blackened ones. It was still quite tasty!

Tuesday Night 'Za Party

We decided to postpone the chowder leftovers for later in the week in favor of making pizzas. As mentioned, I made dough on Monday. I again relied on an Ina recipe, which can be found the Barefoot Contessa Parties. I did have to use sugar to feed the yeast instead of honey (was out of honey) and to be honest, it seemed to make a nicer dough than the last time I made these pizzas. Normally, I love honey in doughs like this, but this dough was super soft, I just kept touching it. The dog was looking at me funny. Anyhow, getting back to cooking, I formed the dough into little dough blobs that were put in the fridge to hang out for a day or two.

The dough blobs were then forced to behave and form reasonably round pizza-shaped bottoms for our toppings. Toppings ranged from homemade marinara* to pepperoni to roasted mushrooms to pesto to cheese....ok, yeah, they weren't THAT exotic, but whatever. It was Tuesday night in OUR house and WE'RE not that exotic. I mean, come on - government attorney and an accountant? Thrill a minute we are not. But I digress.



I heated the oven to 475 degrees and threw those bad boys in for about 12 minutes or so. Mine got a little crispy, as you can see at the right. Still tasted good, just a tad overdone. R gloated. His was a little paler, as seen below.

*I had a random zucchini in the fridge, so I ground that up in the sauce as well. You couldn't taste it. And I got more green veggies in R. Go me.

Possibly the BEST Ina Garten recipe

I do know I've blogged of this before. But I don't think one go-round can convey my deep love and admiration of the Barefoot Contessa Cheddar Corn Chowder (please consult The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, which everyone should have, along with all of her other cookbooks). Nothing warms your cockles quite like this soup/chowder/stew/concoction/witches' blend.

First, you start with bacon.







Then, onions. Soften those up, then you add salt, pepper, tumeric (KEY! more later), and flour.








Then you add chicken stock (homemade, I'm so smug) potatoes...boil...boil....corn, half and half, cheese....







Served up with a hearty hunk of bread (sadly, not from my own kitchen, I've not quite mastered the whole starter thing yet), how can one be sad about anything at all?

Haze of Yeast

After an unfortunate 5 hours at work, I flew home and did some big baking/cooking. First off, I prepared some pizza dough for dinners later in the week (in theory, I may freeze some of it). I'll speak to that more when I actually use the dough.

Next, I decided to build off of my pleasurable cinnamon toast experience and make some homemade cinnamon bread. I've made this bread before, and have been eating it for, oh, let's see...15 years? ish? Ever since my dad first got the Kitchenaid that I currently use (he upgraded to a six-quarter a few years ago).
First, you get your warm liquids percolating on the stove - 1 cup of milk, 3/4 cup water, and 1/3 c butter. Just warm them over low heat, the butter doesn't need to melt, you just want them heated to around 120 degrees. Meanwhile, mix 6 c flour, 6 tbsp sugar, 1 1/2 tsp salt, and 2 packets active dry yeast in the bowl of your mixer. Mix them up with your dough hook. Add 3 eggs, one at a time.* Add your warm liquids. Mix. Gradually add another 1/2 c to 1 1/2 c flour, mixing on a low-moderate speed (Speed 2 on Kitchenaids) until the dough clings and cleans the side of the bowl.

Allow to knead for another two minutes beyond the "cling/clean" phase, then place into a greased bowl, turning to cover with the top, and place in a warm place, away from drafts, for 35 minutes, until doubled in bulk.**

At this point, melt 2 tbsp butter and separately mix 1/2 c sugar and 2tsp cinnamon. Punch down the dough and roll into 9x14 inch rectangle. Brush the dough rectangles with butter, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, and roll up into a log, tucking under the ends. Place into a 9x5x3 loaf pan, and allow to rise again for another 35 minutes.



Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and bake for 40 minutes. Remove from oven and brush the tops with a beaten egg white. Return to the oven for another 5 minutes. Remove from pans immediately and cool on wire racks.


My INTENT is to inhale one loaf and freeze the other to take to my in-laws this weekend. Fingers crossed this happens...






*Has anyone else noticed how Paula Deen says "one at THE time?" It infuriates me.

**This go round, 35 minutes came and went with little yeast progress in this dough. This has happened to me a few times with certain recipes. With the pizza dough, the rising time was perfectly fine, and this one, I was a bit concerned I'd put the warm liquids in a bit too hot. I just gave it another 20 minutes, and all seemed ok.

Leisure breakfast

Technically, I'm supposed to have the day off, yet I'm at work. Nonetheless, I took a somewhat leisurely approach to getting ready and allowed myself some tea and toast before getting a move on and hitting the road. Nothing is as soothing, I think, as sitting around in pajamas munching on cinnamon toast and sipping tea while watching my latest DVR'd PBS broadcast of an Austen flick (this time, it's Northanger Abbey). I must rave a bit about this bread from which I made my cinnamon toast, also. On a whim, I popped into a new bakery in town, the Beehive Bread Company. It's a cute little bakery, full of light and glass, so you can see all the lovely bread and baked goods as you drive past. Especially if you are like me, driving past on a dark night and just veer off into their parking lot. I grabbed a loaf of their White bread (called Great White) and it was possibly the densest loaf of basic bread I've ever come across. I will admit that untoasted in a PBJ sandwich, it was a bit much. But toasted with butter, jam, or as featured, with cinnamon sugar, it became something altogether different - crunchy and satisfying.

A note on cinnamon toast. I love it. I do not love its imposters. I will tolerate things like Panera's Cinnamon Crunch bagels and Pepperidge Farm Cinnamon Swirl Bread. But nothing beats good bread and good butter and good cinnamon sugar. However, when I was about 5 years old, I was not aware that SUGAR was an important ingredient to this mix. My mother was busy doing something else and was unable to assist me as I set about making breakfast. I put bread in the toaster. I found some butter or probably margarine. And I crawled up on the counter and dug from the spice cupboard the cinnamon. Cinnamon + toast = cinnamon toast, right? WRONG. VERY VERY WRONG. The first bite of toasted bread smeared with butter/margarine and plain cinnamon was, in a word, vile. I learned an important lesson that day.

Sausage mania

My love affair with the sausage continues. Last night's dinner (sorry for the bad picture, again, I have a crap camera and, well, I'm a lawyer not a photog) featured the always delicious Schmidt's Bahama Mama sausage paired with some sour cream/cheesy mashed potatoes and for me (not R, who shrieked at even having to remove it from the microwave) lovely (but lame) frozen broccoli with cheese sauce. It is a super easy meal, particularly when either of us has to work a long day. I throw the sausages in the oven to crisp up, I throw the potatoes with their skins on (no peeling unless there will be company!) in some salted water to boil. Once softened, I mash them, throw in some butter, sour cream, handful of cheese (if desired), toss a veg in the micro, and away we go. I love to cook the sausages in the oven because it's a hands-off cooking process and they get nice and crispy on the outside and stay reasonably moist on the inside, if you don't overdo it. These got alarmingly large (plump) in the oven, but deflated a bit as they cooled.

I cannot stress enough that if you find yourself in Columbus, Ohio with an hour or two to spare and you are wearing large pants, you should go to the Schmidt's Sausage Haus in German Village. It is fab. There is a buffet. I will say that I've not LOVED the buffet the last few times I've gone, but maybe it's because the "newness" of the buffet wore off. I did become reacquainted with ordering from the menu, and that made me fall in love with Schmidt's all over again. People take scenic tours of Ohio (I don't know why) and the bus rolls through town and stops there. There is also a fudge haus. You should go. Go. Now. Wear large pants.

My love affair...

Has begun with nuts. I don't know what my problem is lately, but I'm addicted to nuts. It doesn't matter if they are gourmet or just plain ol' Planters out of a vacuum-sealed can, but I love them. And to be honest, they aren't the worst snack in the world. Articles all over the place point to the healthy fats and proteins in nuts as a means to lower the risk of heart disease.* Much better than a sack of greasy chips, eh?



*Walnuts and almonds seem to earn the top kudos from health professionals, so don't start downing nuts of all varieties and declare yourself a health nut (haha, I made a pun! Am SO witty!) just yet.

Lazy dinner

Bacon, eggs, toast. Very easy, very quick. I'm no longer allowed to cook eggs in my house because, I "am not the master." Here is the master at work making his scrambled eggs. He shuns pre-scrambling the eggs - all eggs are put into the pan whole then scrambled. He says he likes some flecks of white in his eggs. He even shuns shredding the cheese, hence, the small hunks of cheddar. I can't fault him though, they come out fluffy, flavorful, and not dry/watery. I guess he's onto something....

A chicken journey

After Sunday's pot roast adventures, I opted for something SLIGHTLY lighter for our Tuesday (and tonight) dinner.

I returned to my Penzey's Greek seasoning and paired about 1 1/2 tbsp of that with 1/4 c extra virgin olive oil, 3 sliced cloves of garlic, 2 zested and juiced lemons, and approximately 1 pound of chicken breasts cut into strips. Then I tossed the destroyed lemons in for good measure. All of this was put into a big plastic bag and placed in the fridge. I did this before work, then went merrily on my way to draft constitutional amendments and bills and all the important work of government. Probably a bit of an overkill marinade for chicken, however, the chicken was NOT tough, so I think the olive oil helped keep the lemon juice from destroying the fibers of the chicken.

On returning home, I got some baking potatoes scrubbed, sliced, and lightly olive oil'd up and into a hot oven to crisp up. I chopped up some veggies - red onion, tomato, romaine lettuce. Then I made a modified tzatziki sauce. Mine was made of drained nonfat yogurt*, a bit of sour cream, some red wine vinegar, dill, salt, and pepper. Then I cooked up the chicken in a hot skillet.


Finally, I brushed some lovely pitas with a bit of seasoned olive oil, tossed them in the oven for a few minutes, then stuffed them with all the above goodies, tossed them on the plate with my potatoes, and bob's your uncle.

Update - for night 2 of this meal, I stopped and grabbed some feta cheese. It really makes all the differences. I mean, the pitas were fine the night before, but mmm...cheese...


*To drain the yogurt, I simply put a coffee filter in a metal strainer, then put the strain over a bowl. Then put the yogurt in the coffee filter. Allow to "drain" for a day or two. It is AMAZINGLY gross how much liquid comes out. And how thick the yogurt gets. This is a way to make "yogurt cheese" I believe. You can add herbs and seasonings to this, and it is like a whipped cream cheese almost. Non fat and low in calories though.

Sunday roast

A recent Pioneer Woman post inspired me to make pot roast on Sunday. I adopted her technique of browning the onions/carrots as well as the beef itself prior to the long, slow roast in the oven. I fell back on the tried and true cream of mushroom soup/onion soup mix "braising" liquid method . I threw in some beef broth and wine for good measure. We also threw some random steak seasoning onto the large chuck roast. This steak seasoning was the bomb - it was a grinder filled with sea salt, huge peppercorns, whole mustard seeds, rosemary, thyme, oregano, coriander, and other delish spices and herbs. It was fab. R accidentally dropped the entire jar of spice mix onto one side of the roast and the counter (the lid was not on right) but we managed to salvage some of the spice mix and rub the rest off the roast. Regardless, the roast came out of its long oven roasting well, and made a delish gravy for the embarrassingly large heap of mashed potatoes. The green beans on the side were an after thought...and those too were good dipped in gravy...

Faking the braid

I know the chicken braid has intrigued some of you. The chicken braid is delicious and others must make it. However, the chicken braid is not the most, how shall I say this? healthful recipe out there. And the primary culprit of that lack of healthfulness is the stupid crescent roll. Do not read the side of a tube of crescent rolls. You will faint. Especially when you realize that you basically just ate a whole tube of them on your own whilst consuming the chicken braid. So, I brainstormed (briefly, as you'll see) on how to slightly improve the braid. My thought was to make the chicken braid filling (which isn't the lightest thing on the planet, but get over it) and simply smear it on some crusty bread and throw that under the broiler. And guess what, it seemed to work out. No, it didn't taste AS delicious as if it were encased in delicious fatty crescent roll, but it worked just fine, and the plus side was not having to mess with flouring the entire kitchen to roll out crescent rolls and braiding them blah blah blah.

Soup travails

So, seeing as it is winter, and it WAS cold last week (notwithstanding today's 60+ degree temps), I decided to try Ina's Mexican Chicken Soup (ignore the messy bowl in the picture, you know I'm not know for presentation!). I used a store-bought rotisserie chicken instead of roasting my own, but I did not deviate from the recipe otherwise. Oh, I did use fire-roasted tomatoes, figuring they'd add some flavor. I even used homemade stock. The resulting soup was very bland. I don't know if my jalapenos had lost their zip or whatever. So I doctored it up. I added one chipotle pepper and a tablespoon of adobo sauce. Nothing. I added several squirts of Texas Pete, then some of some random hot sauce in my fridge. Again, nothing. So, I went for the "depth of flavor" angle and threw in some chicken base. It helped a bit. It needed tang for sure, so I added some lime zest and juice. Nope. Red wine vinegar. Nothing. Worcestershire. Couldn't taste it. Finally, I broke open a bottle of this lemon/garlic/soy finishing sauce my brother gave me for Christmas. That seemed to add a tiny bit of something. But still, it was just an okay soup. I mean, any homemade soup is going to be better than stuff out of a can on your average day, but this was really underwhelming for me. That said, R seemed to enjoy it and others seem to find it ok. But I was really hoping for a home run and was a bit disappointed. HOWEVER, the plus side of this recipe was the cool discovery (sue me, I'm coming to the party late on this one probably) of using tortillas to thicken a soup - those corn tortillas dissolved right into the soup. I had my doubts, but they went away. It was cool.

Singing the praises of a gadget

I must sing the praises of a new gadget purchased for me by my dear father as a Christmas gift. It is a gift of freshness. And fun, because it is really quite a fun gadget. It is the Reynolds(r) Handi-Vac, and it is an inexpensive food sealer! It is super sweet! I think it retails for about $10 plus the cost of extra bags. You can reuse the bags, which is a big selling point. Yeah, it probably doesn't "suck" (haha) as hard as the expensive foodsavers do, but this is small and fun! I've been sealing foods like crazy. Leftover ham from Christmas? ZIIIIP! Sealed and in the freezer. Extra pork tenderloin? ditto. Same for pieces of cheese you want to keep fresh in your meat/cheese drawer. I bet you could even save nuts in your pantry this way. I wonder about spices...hmm...intriguing...

Dessert experiment

Ever since we were in Ireland last February, R has been on my case about recreating a sticky toffee pudding, a dessert he sampled SEVERAL times during our trip. He hearts toffee. He hearts cake. And lately, he's taken quite a shine to candy-making type ventures, so he was quite excited at the prospect of making a new dessert. So, we went to the ol' Food Network website and found us a recipe. First, you make a cake. A v. pale cake. Very pale. You are supposed to put dates in the cake. Dates are gross, as are most dried fruit. Ick. Dates do not have a place in my life. Except dinner dates. Haha, a little joke. Regardless, perhaps the dates would have added more color to a very blah looking cake. Anyways, you bake this blah little cake until it is firmly set. Meanwhile, you make the star of the show, a sticky toffee topping. Boil brown sugar, cream, and butter. Once cake is done, you pour a portion of this toffee over the hot cake, then broil said cake. You can see a photo of the cake post-broiler. You then serve the broiled cake with whipped cream or ice cream and the remaining hot toffee sauce.

I must say, I was not thrilled with the cake bit. It was a bit vanilla-y and eggy for my taste (despite only having one egg). A bit moist, if you will. I wasn't sure I liked the dish at all on bites one and two. However - the bites that were only ice cream with hot toffee sauce...now THOSE were something to write home about. When the hot toffee sauce hits the cold ice cream, some of the sauce hardens into chewy toffee, whilst some of it remains hot and molten, melting the ice cream (wait, I'm sounding like Nigella). THAT was delish. The cake I'm rather "eh" about. R enjoyed the cake as well, but was dishearted by the light color. He wants perhaps to try a recipe given to us by Miss M hailing from Mr. Jamie Oliver. It included a number of odd ingredients, so we'll see. I just didn't like the eggyness. He didn't like the paleness. We must renew our efforts towards perfection.

Fancy dinner

R and I celebrated the new year with pork a bit early on Sunday. Miss L had suggested a lovely pork roulade type thing, so I decided to give 'er a whirl. The recipe basically called for you to pound out a butterflied pork tenderloin and fill it with a spinach mixture. I know I don't love spinach, so I made it a bit more breadcrumby/parmesan cheesy/herby than spinachy. Probably almost half and half. I also forgot the mustard in the middle. Oops. I did enjoy the pork, I will say. But sadly, I was again reminded that I just plain don't like spinach unless it is surrounded by lovely mayo/sourcream/Knorr veg soup mix or hot artichokes and cheese. I don't know why. I like most other vegetables. The sauce was nice...a bit thick...and I was a bit horrified by the heating of the mayonnaise, but it was good with the pork. And it helped cover up more of the ick spinach. :) And this is definitely a fab way to stretch a somewhat pricier cut of pork. Obviously a pork tenderloin isn't nearly as pricey as a beef tenderloin or other expensive cuts of meat, but being married to a devout meateater means you look for ways to really get your dollar's worth out of meat. I got two very hearty meals out of one tenderloin. And Daisy got the little end.

For the pasta, it was just a modified alfredo type dish. I cooked 2-3 strips of bacon in a high sided frying pan. Remove when crisp. Add about 3/4 c cream. I learned the hard way not to forget to turn the heat WAY DOWN or remove the pan from the heat for a bit. Splatters everywhere. I put in two heaping teaspoonfuls of prepared basil pesto. Ground in some peppers. Tossed in some freshly grated parm. Added in one pound of slightly undercooked linguine. Toss, toss, add more cheese, toss, toss, add a few handfuls of frozen peas, add the crumbled bacon, toss. Serve. It was quite good. I'll be eating the rest for lunch today.

Sammies

R and I like paninis. Or panino, whatever the proper plural is. I had purchased some delicious roast beef coldcuts from the delightful Yutzy's market, so I teamed them up with some carmelized onion/red bell pepper action (and smoked swiss cheese and mustard horseradish sauce) on some ciabatta bread. Fab.